Suzanne Fields: The barrier between the geeks and the suits

Obama’s public performances offer clues to his behind-the-scenes management style, revealing a self-appointed “vision” man who stands above it all until he meets the public as seller-in-chief. Sebelius suggests that she didn’t know the right questions to ask her contractors, and didn’t make sure there was clear and effective coordination between the technical staff (the geeks) and the business staff (the suits). She was not amused when someone gave her a copy of the familiar computer reference manual “Web Sites for Dummies.”

On a systems project as big as Obamacare, you’re in a heap of trouble if you have to revisit the dynamics between the geeks and the suits after the rollout. “They’re trying to change a tire on a car going 70 miles an hour down the expressway,” says Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan (who’s a congressman and not a coiner of metaphors). A more likely metaphor is a car with a dead battery.